By Rory Callinan
CYBER security officials in the Federal Attorney-General's department were investigating ''issues'' with Chinese telco Huawei as far back as 2008 and a Telstra official allegedly told United States officials the same year that the company was a ''security risk''.
The revelations were contained in US embassy cables released by WikiLeaks last year and suggest the company was on the radar screens of Australian intelligence for years prior to it being excluded from the latest National broadband network work.
Security fears ... the Huawei Technologies building in Silicon Valley.Credit: Peter DaSilva/The New York Times
The company was banned late last year from tendering for the NBN contracts after ASIO advised its involvement could compromise national security in light of concerns over cyber attacks originating from China.
The cables reveal that in 2008, the Australian Attorney-General's office for cyber security was examining Huawei as part of a ''real'' national security review of the then NBN project bids, which were to be presented to the Australian government in mid-January.
''Director Lionel Markey told the econoff (economics office of the embassy) that they were always aware there would be 'contention' about components for the NBN,'' said the cable dated December 2008.
''AGD (Attorney-General's Department) is consulting with a range of Australian government agencies including the Defence Signals Directorate (DSD) and the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO).
''Markey said the GOA (Australian government) was well aware of issues related to Huawei. He indicated that GOA agencies would likely contact USG (United States government) counterparts for further information.'' The same cable described the battle for NBN work as getting ''uglier'' and noted there was speculation that Telstra leaked the Huawei security issue story after its bid was disqualified.
''A Telstra official told econoff in mid-November that Optus would use Huawei and implied that (that) would be a security risk for Australia. Others speculate it could be from competing equipment manufacturers seeking part of the $4.5 billion pie.''
The US embassy declined to comment about the cables on Friday.
Telstra declined to comment on whether the Telstra official involved had been identified.
A Telstra spokesperson said the company did not and could not have had knowledge of competing bids or outcome of the tender which was later scrapped.
A Huawei spokesman rejected any security issues with the company and said the company's track record ''speaks for itself: We are working with all of Australia's major operators today including Telstra, Optus, Vodafone and more''.
He said ''as the world's leading NBN provider, Huawei remained hopeful of playing a role in Australia's NBN, but ultimately that is a decision for the Australian government and NBN Co.
''While we're obviously disappointed by the decision, Huawei will continue to be open and transparent and work to find ways of providing assurance around the security of our technology,'' he said.